


Dirty Blood

by PandaNova



Series: The Life of Andri Mahariel [2]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-13
Updated: 2013-08-13
Packaged: 2017-12-23 09:08:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/924538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandaNova/pseuds/PandaNova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Andri's first mission with the Grey Wardens doesn't turn out like Alistair hopes, as he finds a confrontational and unfriendly elf. Still, he tries to give her the best foot forward, maybe she'll warm up with time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dirty Blood

With a loud cry the blade came crashing through the air, the sound of it hitting soft flesh reverberating against the trees as the darkspawn hit the dirt below. Alistair rose, his eyes looking confused as he noticed two of the three Warden recruits with him looking terrified. This was expected, it was the third one that caught him by surprise. The dalish elf was kicking over one of the corpses and checking it’s pockets.

“Uh, you ok?”

“Hand me the vial.” Long pale fingers reached up toward him, but Alistair couldn’t help but look down at her with a wary eye. Her face turned up to gaze at him, the swirling pattern along her cheeks and forehead looking all the more foreign with the few splatters that had hit her in the battle. She pulled out a dagger, and despite himself he flinched.  
“The vial?”  
“Oh, right.” He handed the small glass cylinder over, the piece was almost identical to the phylacteries he remembered from his time with the templars.

Despite the fact that Duncan had told him what he had to do, and that these wardens were his responsibility, he still felt his stomach turn as she pushed the blade into the darkspawn’s torso. He wasn’t sure if it was the squelching sound, or the black and red blood that came out like sludge into the clear glass. No, he was sure, it was all of it that had him feeling so ill.  
“Here.” She shoved it back into his hand and rose to her feet, wiping a bit of vitae off of her face. Then her glare followed and a shaky hand finally took the now full piece of glass. 

Andri managed five steps feeling not only his eyes, but also Ser Jory’s on her. Finally she couldn’t take it and pivoted right back around, glaring green eyes taking in Alistair.

“What are you staring at shem?!”  
“I – uh- I, well - “ An awkward laugh escaped his lips as his hand reached up to adjust the helm she had thrown at him before they left Duncan and the camp a mere hour before.  
“What? Didn’t expect an elf, a dalish to be able to take on darkspawn, or is it just because you’ve never been this close to a girl before?” She was trying to get in his face, and he knew it, but her smaller stature caused her only to have to crane her neck back so her glare could stab into him. To anyone else, it probably would have been funny, but the careless way she cut open that darkspawn kept anyone from laughing.

“No, nooo, it’s not that! In fact I expected you to be quite a fighter, being from the Dalish and having to hunt and all.” It didn’t get the reaction he wanted, her eyes narrowed more and while the fierce look was strangely adorable, he quickly redirected her anger.

” It’s more that…” He shoved a hand toward Ser Jory, who was keeping a wide berth from the now quickly rotting corpse, and Daveth who honestly looked like he had soiled himself. “You didn’t even flinch.”

She had moved now, and he was thankful to have the smaller woman away from him, she was much less dangerous when she was out of arms reach. She was bending over another darkspawn, what he was pretty sure was Hurlock, and checking it’s pockets.

“Vial.”

This time he was clever enough to look away before she shoved the small dagger at her side into the creature. He had steeled himself for collecting the blood, but he hadn’t realized it would be this disgusting, not to mention the squelching sound like a boot being pulled out of the mud.

“This isn’t my first time meeting these. . . things.” She kicked the corpse for good measure before stepping back to see if they had felled any other foes.

“You, uh, mentioned. I just, didn’t think you had fought them is all.”

That gained him her whirling around to face him again, those eyes narrowed at him. “And why would that be?”  
“Well, well, I-I” He stuttered as he put up his hands open palmed to try and pacify her. “I mean look at them, they’re hideous. “  
She sheathed her dagger, and he hadn’t even truly noticed the fact that she had been brandishing it in his direction. For once he was truly happy for this uncomfortable platemail, it would give her less places in which to stab him.  
“You know, we’re all Wardens here so maybe you could try - “

“Vial!” She seemed to have found yet another corpse, and he gulped before heading over. This was truly going to put him off his lunch. Still he handed it over to her and was surprised when she threw a necklace at him. He juggled it for a moment, nearly dropping the small piece of jewelry, it had a leather strap for a chain and a strange carved shape in bone at the bottom.

“Is it a fish?” He thought it sort of looked like a fish, with the little divots for scales. His head tilted in confusion as he brought it closer to his eyes to try and see what it was supposed to depict.

“I found it on this one, it may be useful.” Andri said, carelessly wiping the blood on her face onto her arm, it streaked slightly and made her look all the more wild.

“It sort of looks like a fish, but is has claws on it. Fish don’t have claws, do they?” He looked up to her, and was surprised by the narrowed eyes staring at him.

“Would you just put it in your pack!” Her angry voice, and the glower that came with it, quickly snapped him away from inspecting the necklace. He shoved it into the pack along with the third vial.

“Well, uh, that looks to be all the blood we’ll need!” He called to Ser Jory and Daveth, though the two men still seemed unwilling to come any closer to the creatures and Andri was too busy riffling through the back pockets of third corpse to show any consideration to the two other recruits with her.

“You know Andri, it wouldn’t hurt for you to be a bit more friendly. We’re all Wardens here.” He kept his voice as sweet as he could, despite their differences. It definitely wasn’t deserving of the response it got, for she turned with more speed than he was prepared for and grabbed the bit of his tunic poking out from beneath his breast plate.

She seemed so young when she had first arrived, barely out of being a girl, but the strength behind her grip spoke otherwise as she literally dragged him to kneeling so that they were looking eye to eye. She didn’t seem so small now either.  
“Listen Shem - “  
“Alistair,” He interjected, which caused her grip to tighten.  
“Shem, don’t you get the idea of being friendly. We’re both Wardens, but that’s all. To me, you and those two are still shems. Now just point me in the direction of those damn scrolls so we can get out of here.” She shoved him then, standing from her crouch and landing him on his backside in the dirt.

“W-Well, uh. Let’s just get going, shall we?” He pushed himself upright again. A nervous laugh leaving him as he dusted off his pack a bit and indicated to Ser Jory and Daveth that it was safe. He could hear Daveth snickering as he passed him, but the man didn’t say anything. Instead they simply fell in behind Andri, Alistair taking the rear as they moved further into the wilds.  
His eyes caught her black hair as the wind caught it, the sun reflecting against it as a few rays broke through the trees. Despite her frigid reaction to him he smiled. It seemed at least one of them in this group was more than capable of being a Warden.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it, as always comments and critique are welcome, and I'll see you in the next installment.


End file.
